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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 2020)
2 Wednesday, April 22, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O Editorial… Pivoting toward recovery Ramp up COVID-19 testing Testing is the key to getting America working and living again in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every responsible roadmap to opening up the country places as its topline require- ment <the ability to monitor and protect our communities through testing, contact tracing, isolating, and supporting those who are posi- tive or exposed,= as California puts it 4 and Oregon and Washington are aligned with that approach. Though more extensive testing capability is coming online, it9s not happening quickly or extensively enough. America needs a major wartime effort to get this done NOW. We used to be really good at this sort of thing. Need thousands of B-17 bombers and Sherman tanks to crush the Third Reich? It9s on. Full court press. We have the capacity to do the same with COVID-19 testing 4 all we need is clear direction and a focused effort of will, starting at the top. Contact Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and Rep. Greg Walden and let them know that there is no higher priority than placing fully adequate testing capability in the hands of healthcare providers across the fruited plain. Contact the White House and demand action. A little of that gung-ho all-the-way-to- Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief victory spirit of yore would be most welcome right now. We can do it! Jim Cornelius, Editor-in-Chief Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is 10 a.m. Monday. To the Editor: I would like to take a moment to thank you all as a community for the love and sup- port you9ve given to the Health Care system during this COVID-19 time. As an ICU RN I find myself overwhelmed with appreciation and joy from all the support through donations, thoughts, letters, masks, prayers and just your smiles. It truly brings us peace and strength as we walk in to do what we are all honored to do. I hear often how thankful we are as See LETTERS on page 11 THE NUGGET OFFICE IS CLOSED TO FOOT TRAFFIC, BUT WE ARE ANSWERING PHONES AND EMAIL ... 541-549-9941 NEWS: Jim Cornelius, editor@nuggetnews.com, 541-390-6973 ADVERTISING: Vicki Curlett, vicki@nuggetnews.com, 541-699-7530 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday N Saturday Monday Sunday Rain Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy 60/42 60/41 64/40 65/38 64/42 61/38 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Email: editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Creative Director: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partner: Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $55; six months (or less), $30. First-class postage: one year, $95; six months, $65. Published Weekly. ©2020 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is pro- hibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper9s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. West Coast states have agreed on a pact for a consistent, coordinated approach to pivot away from locking down to <flat- ten the curve= and toward recovering our economic and cultural life. This is good news. Central Oregon should craft a coordinated recovery plan as well. For life cannot indefi- nitely be decoupled from making a living. I am at pains to make myself clear here: I take this virus very seriously. I do not want to get it; I dread the very thought of my loved ones getting sick; and I understand the neces- sity of flattening the curve to stave off a collapse of red-zone health care sys- tems. The world is in a ter- rible fix, with no good or easy options. But we must recognize that the social treatment for this pandemic is toxic. For, make no mistake, the economic fallout of this pandemic will blight and shorten lives as surely 4 albeit less dramatically 4 as shredded lungs. And the longer the near-shutdown continues, the deeper and more pervasive the damage will be. We in the West have lost our understanding of the connection between liveli- hood and life. We are so incomprehensibly wealthy and have been so secure for so long in our wealth and comfort, that we no longer recognize the wolf when he comes to the door. The wolf is about to make its presence known. At some point we will have to move past this moment9s stasis. And that movement will entail risk and sacrifice. Wo r l d Health Organization (WHO) spe- cial envoy David Nabarro said recently: <We think it is going to be a virus that stalks the human race for quite a long time to come until we can all have a vaccine that will protect us and that there will be small outbreaks that will emerge sporadically and they will break through our defenses.= And what if we can9t develop a vaccine in short order? That9s a real pos- sibility, one that our pill- for-every-ill mindset can scarcely comprehend and instinctively recoils against. Coronaviruses are not easy to vaccinate against, and we cannot count on swiftly conjuring one to save us. We9re going to have to learn to live with COVID-19. We will not return quickly to pre-COVID normal 4 not until herd immunity reduces its viru- lence and we have a test- ing program that can gauge how pervasive the illness actually is. We must con- tinue to isolate and protect the vulnerable to the degree possible. We must adapt our way of living and take ongoing personal precau- tions, including modifying social interaction. But we must venture forth and live and work again. Western culture has become so imbued with the myth of zero-defect and absolute safety that it will require a massive cultural shift to accept that we actu- ally must live with risk and danger. The notion that any measure is morally impera- tive <if it saves just one life= will crumble in the face of a brutal reeduca- tion in what is actually fea- sible in a world of limited resources. Indian economist Sanjeev Sabhlok wrote in The Times of India on April 11: <Most nations are behav- ing like ostriches with their head buried in sand 3 with febrile dreams about vac- cines and treatments. They want to keep their society in suspended animation while reducing the loss of life from the virus. They are oblivious to the incom- prehensible cost their soci- ety will pay for indefinite lockdowns. Steve Kates, an economist I admire, has estimated that the cost to society of saving a life in extreme, extended lock- downs could be in the range of $300 million. Good luck to Western nations with that.= And, of course, Sabhlok recognizes that his own nation can9t even pretend to think that such a commit- ment is possible. Those who are living closer to the bone than Westerners have lived for generations understand something that we must re- learn. Some things can9t be fixed; the best we can do is mitigate 4 and learn to live again, as our ancestors did, in the valley of the shadow of death.